Moon Cat Jusenkyo Cat
by borg rabbit
Summary: Artemis meets Shampoo one shot.


Don't own Sailor Moon or Ranma. My loss.

Shampoo shuddered in anger. The boys who had heaped the indignities upon her would pay. She crouched in a corner of the cardboard box swiping at the 'thing' taped to her head, a toy joker's cap and the bells taped to her tail that were cutting off circulation to the end of that appendage.

'Aiyah!' she thought, 'Those cruel boys will let me out eventually to have their fun and when I find hot water, they will pay. Oh! Will they pay!' Thus, asserting her intentions to herself, she settled down quieting her rage and though she couldn't admit it, her fear.

A few minutes, or hours, later, she wasn't sure, the box opened and another cat was thrust into her formerly lonely quarters. 'Those demon children will pay' was her mantra as she assessed the threat level of the large white long haired tomcat that had joined her.

She immediately noticed the lack of normal trapped cat behavior and the tears that were running down his facial fur. Using aura sight, 'This is not an ordinary cat. His ki is blazing away, but its not like any person or animal I've ever seen. It doesn't feel evil. Maybe it's a cat spirit that got unlucky.' Shampoo nuzzled the white cat, who let out a curious mew. She looked intently at the other's face and put his tail to the floor while watching his face for uncatlike behavior. A single claw extended from her other paw and began to tear at the tape on his tail. As the tape pulled on the hair of his tail he let out a suppressed yowl. 'He's too smart to be an ordinary cat, maybe he'll help me get this kami forsaken trash off of me when I am done.'

The white cat purred with relief when he felt the restored circulation. He surprised Shampoo when he licked her between the eyes in a show of gratitude. Feeling that her instincts and senses were right, she began to work on the tape that held the doll's bonnet to the other's forehead.

As the tape pulled off the other cat's forehead, a half moon mark was exposed. "Ouch!" said the white cat in a harsh whisper. "I suppose that I need to return the favor, my dear?"

Shampoo's eye's bugged out, even as she nodded in agreement. 'Maybe this is a Jusenkyo victim who learned a spell to let him talk in cursed form.'

"Name's Artemis, by the way. Can't say that I expected to run across any more moon cats, but the more the merrier. Luna can get rather tiresome at times. There we go. How's that. Better?" Shampoo nodded gratefully.

"Now to get that wretched hat off your head that is blocking you my dear. Just sit quietly mmph mmphh." He hooked the tape with a canine and sliced it all at once. Artemis then hooked a claw under the end, "This might hurt my dear friend", as he ripped the ridiculous fools cap from Shampoo's head.

He looked at the white and pink cat's forehead and disappointment sounded in his whispered voice. "Oh my I guess that you aren't a moon cat. Well, thanks for your help anyway. I guess that you are smart enough to know that we have to get out of here now. I don't think anyone is around now, so let's get away from here before those horrid boys return, okay?" Shampoo nodded agreement as Artemis leapt from one corner to the top of the box, causing it to rock. Shampoo got the idea and joined the other cat by timing her own leap to his.

The tall box fell onto its side with a thump and the folded flaps of the top sprang open and two cats shot out, stopping to take in their surroundings. They were in a tool shed. Workbenches and gardening tools surrounded them. Shampoo spotted an open window and meowed to get her companion to notice. She then jumped onto the workbench and waited at the window to leave. Artemis made the jump but knocked a bucket of small gardening tools over with a loud clatter as they hit the floor. Shampoo growled when she heard some shouting outside the door. 'Those damned kids aren't getting me again' and she leapt out the window, followed by an embarrassed Artemis. The white cat followed the other across the yard, up a tree trunk, up a limb and onto a roof. They scooted across the roof, leaping to the next and the next until they felt safe enough to stop and rest.

Artemis sat on his haunches panting for a while until he noticed Shampoo staring intently at him. "I-I guess your not an ordinary earth cat?" She nodded. "Well, you not being able to talk both solves and causes problems for me. Before I can go home, I need to know just what you know." A light bulb flashed. "Can you write?" Vigorous nod. "Then follow me."

The playground was empty except for the two cats in the big litterbox (sandbox). The two cats had painstakingly smoothed out a section of sand and Artemis spoke, "Okay, young heroine, what is your name?"

Shampoo carefully used her paw to form the kanji for her name. Artemis looked on curiously. 'It looks like chinese kanji', "Xian…Sham..poo Shampoo?" She nodded, meowing for emphasis.

She scrawled "Am Amazon senshi."

Artemis mentally raised his eyebrow. "But I thought the Amazons were a tribe of women. Actually I ought to know because I was the ambassador to their queen, Diana. I guess about eighteen thousand years ago."

Shampoo's eyes got big as she hurriedly cleared the ground.

Artemis waited till she was done writing. "Jusenkyo you? Does that horrible place still exist?" A nod, yes. "Are you a shape changer?" Another nod. "How do you change back?"

Some more frantic writing. "Hot water." Nod. "You need hot water to change?" Nod and emphatic meow.

"I suppose I can do this since the Amazons were allies of Queen Serenity in the silver millennium. Will you promise to keep my secret?" Shampoo sat up and placed a paw over her heart while meowing her oath. "Okay, I'll get you your hot water."

Artemis began to concentrate. His body glowed and shifted to that of a 'clothed', white haired young man wobbling a bit in place, as if unused to his form. "Wait right here." Trotting uneasily out of the park to find some hot water.

Shampoo went to some nearby trees to wait for this person to return, hoping that he might share the technique of changing through will alone. 'I also need to mention this to great-grandmother. If he is really as old as he says and knew some of our ancient queens…' She began to pass the time batting some bright flowers and soaking up the evening sun.

Artemis returned with a cup of hot water from a local yattai and spotted Shampoo playing in a flowerbed around a tree trunk. "Cute." Was his whispered response at the sight. She saw him and meowed loudly and went into a small grove of trees. He entered shortly bearing the cup.

Shampoo looked up expectantly as he said, "I hope this is hot enough."

He carefully poured the water onto shampoo's feline head and immediately developed a nose bleed at the voluptuous maiden standing before him in all of her glory. He rapidly turned his head as the girl reached into her hyperspace pocket to get the clothes she had been wearing before being splashed.

"Shampoo want thank Artemis-san for help escaping too too naughty boys and getting hot water. How you change without water?"

"I'm sorry Shampoo. That is just an ability that moon cats have. I really am a cat, not a human and without practice I'll revert back in about an hour."

"Well, Shampoo think that you too too nice kitty. Shampoo thank you." She turned the 'frozen' Artemis around and gave him a nice kiss on the cheek. 'Save lips for airen.'

"You say know Queen Diana?"

"Which one? I knew three Dianas"

"Okay. Why your name same as one of our ancient queen?"

"Wellll. The last Diana I knew liked my name and gave it to her daughter. I would have thought that she would have given it to her son."

"What son's name?"

"Errr. Shampoo…"

"Ha ha ha he he. Name boy like girl?"

"Yeah, Diana had a sick twisted sense of humor and loved to prank everyone at least once. But…sadly, Shampoo left the tribe in anger when his mother wouldn't change his name. Rumor had it that he started a new tribe ruled by men only and took a dragon for a mate."

"Aiyahh! You say Amazon womens related to Musk!"

"Err, yeah, if that's what they're called now."

"Shampoo really, really would like for Artemis-san to meet great grandmother Cologne at Nekohanten chinese restaurant in Nerima?"

"I would like to post pone that until next Monday, if I can. I do have my duties to my princess Serenity."

"Can come about three, after noon meal rush?"

"Sure, it will be nice to meet some of our old allies. Be careful Shampoo and I'll see you then." He turned to leave.

"Bai bai Artemis-san. Come to café. Shampoo make too too good tuna ramen for friend Artemis.

Artemis shifted to cat form and jumped onto a fence, heading home. 'I hope that I've found some new allies. Mmmm tuna ramen. And, such a pretty kitty."

Omake

Six months later:

Cologne took one look at a newly pregnant Shampoo. "So son in law finally did the naughty? But why are you locked in cat form?"

"I think that its my fault, we wandered into a catnip garden…", said a sheepish Artemis from the open window. Cologne's facefault broke her cane.

The old woman's muffled voice came from the hole in the floor where her head rested. "You are going to the vet to be fixed."

Artemis vanished leaving a shocked afterimage.


End file.
